Is the Jersey Shore Cast Really Italian?

It’s a question that’s picked up a lot of steam lately: Are all the Jersey Shore cast members actually Italian?

Do you want the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? All right, you asked for it.

The short answer is “No.”

We have our friend Jenni “JWOWW” Farley to thank for the inside info. During an interview on Fox’s Strategy Room, JWOWW confessed to being half Irish and half Spanish with no Italian blood. We can’t say we’re terribly surprised — “Farley” isn’t the most Italian-sounding name in the world.

But JWOWW didn’t stop there. She went on to say that her girl Snooki is in fact Chilean, meaning that Snooki is not Italian either. Shocking, we know.

Then there’s Ronnie, who is quite open about being only half Italian. His full last name is Ortiz-Magro, with “Ortiz” hailing from his mother’s Puerto Rican side of the family.

The false “Italian-ization” of some of the show’s cast members sparks an interesting debate: Should they be representing Italian American culture even though they’re not Italian themselves? To put it another way, should they be allowed to call themselves “guidos” or “guidettes”? According to JWOWW, those terms transcend race or ethnicity and instead describe a chosen identity or lifestyle: “Guidette is a stereotype that people misconstrued with Italians — it’s a lifestyle ... It’s like the mafia — there’s the Russian mafia.”

So there you go, Jersey Shore fans: Snooki, JWOWW, and half of Ronnie aren’t Italian, but they’re all guidos. That means there’s hope for all of us.